An optimist yet a realist, he foresaw some possible struggles at the plate.

And so it has been.

Strangely, while the Mets’ bats launched three no-doubt-about-it shots over the right field wall, the wind that kept flags stiff most of Wednesday night didn’t carry any Padres hits out of Citi Field.

Nope. The Padres bats remained as cold as the night air that dipped into the 30s.

With some spark in the last two innings, though, their collective batting average did rise. After two games, they’re batting 161.

Things really started looking up when Carlos Quentin drew a two-out walk and became the Padres’ first runner left on base in the seventh inning. He was the Padres’ third baserunner.

Finally, when Mets starter Matt Harvey was lifted before the start of the eighth, the Padres strung together successive hits for the first time this season and later scored their third run of the season. They would score three more runs in the ninth, when 80-year-old reliever LaTroy Hawkins (actually 40) was incapable of throwing a pitch past anyone.

You’d love to cling to hope, right? Fact is, 160 more games is probably enough time to count on them scoring more than a couple runs when it matters at least every once in a while.

But this team does not inspire much faith.

Certainly not with Headley in the dugout with a fractured tip of his thumb.